20 October 2008

KiwiHost offers complimentary customer service training for politicians

KiwiHost is offering a complimentary customer service training workshop – titled ‘Well Done is Better Than Well Said’ to all New Zealand politicians who are successfully elected to parliament in the November elections.

The workshop is aptly named after a quote by Benjamin Franklin.

KiwiHost New Zealand joint managing director, Jared Brixton, said he is sure that politicians don’t enjoy being the butt of cynical jokes and angry mutters, and good customer service would go a long way to winning the affection and future votes of the public.

“Looking at this election, we could apply the quote from customer service expert, Tony Alessandra, when he said: ‘Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game’.”

“‘Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong’, from Donald Porter, is equally apt,” said Mr Brixton.

Key subject areas would include:

• How to listen, empathise, have a positive attitude, and show a desire to assist
• When to acknowledge and to apologise
• The use of positive language, diction, pronunciation, clarity, pitch and tone
• How to not over-promise and under-deliver
• How to say what you mean and do what you say
• How to speak less and listen more using active listening and open questioning to ascertain customer needs
• Understanding positive and negative communication
• Handling challenging and abusive customers

Like all KiwiHost key customer service skills training, the workshop will enable the participants to:

• Recognise their own part in increasing the profitability of the country
• Appreciate the value of the memorable first impression
• Recognise the impact that good customer service has on their organisation
• Have increased self confidence and self worth
• Be confident in greeting customers in a genuine, warm and welcoming manner
• Understand that customers value honesty, courtesy, openness and fair play
• Recognise that colleagues are customers as well
• Develop positive communication in customer relationships
• Recognise that the customer needs to feel valued

“Like all KiwiHost customer service training workshop participants, politicians who take part will receive resource material and a workbook for ongoing learning, as well as a badge and a nationally recognised customer service certificate,” Mr Brixton said.

ENDS

For more information: www.kiwihost.co.nz

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